Winning a bracelet isn’t easy. Just ask Shaun Deeb.
First you’ve got to get through the field and put yourself in a position to take a shot. Then you’ve got to close it out.
Deeb has won eight bracelets but could have won another three this year alone if heads-up had gone his way.
At the WSOPE in Prague, he lost heads-up twice to quads – in the €3,300 Mixed PLO and the €565 Colossus. He ran terribly in both.
This summer he had to contend with a curse from WWE Danhausen, paid for by WSOP sideline reporter Jeff Platt.
Then he started bombing tournaments left and right. At one point he had just one cash to show for 60 bullets, in what he admitted was the worst WSOP of his career.
He finally got back into the money when he finished second in the $3,000 Nine-Game Mixed event at the WSOP in Vegas a couple of weeks ago. But the bracelet still eluded him.
If it wasn’t third-time lucky for Deeb, when would it end?
Tonight.
Fourth time’s the charm
Deeb won his ninth WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 8-Game Mixed event on Tuesday night after coming back into the final day as chip leader with 13 left – but it was not smooth sailing.
He almost went out in ninth when he needed a wheel to survive in a round of 2-7 triple draw, and battled through to heads-up when he had a 2:1 chip deficit.
Dean Joe proved a tough heads-up opponent.
Deeb got the stacks back to even and then opened up a 2:1 chip lead, before being pegged back again as Joe kept making hand after hand to take a 3:1 chip lead.
Deeb had the loudest rail, and they were desperately trying to will him back into it.
When card distribution is against you, though, it doesn’t matter who you are or how many people you’ve got on your rail. You just have to hang in there.
And Deeb hung in. He took the lead back, then lost it again.
He had Joe all-in with the best of it on the flop in a PLO hand. Joe doubled.
Then Deeb got it in as a dog on a 
flop.
- Deeb:
- Joe:
“I like your hand,” Deeb said.
After the 
runout, he preferred his. With the rail still trying to work out who had won the hand, Deeb extended his hand to Joe and said, “I win.”
“Too many seconds,” Deeb said as he was congratulated by his rail.
Now the question is: can he find any more firsts?
Straight to the next one
Deeb posed for his winner shot just before 10pm and agreed to a quick interview with us – but he wanted it done quickly.
“I’ve got a tournament to play,” he said with a smile.
And where most people celebrate a bracelet win, Deeb was sanguine.
“It’s a stepping stone,” he told us. “A grind. It’s still a losing summer, still an awful summer. But I found a way to make three of my four cashes really f***ing good.”
He did acknowledge that the win made the Player of the Year race a little bit tighter and added, “I think it’s going to be fun for the next few weeks.”
Deeb was also full of praise for his heads-up opponent.
“I thought I could run him over heads-up and I couldn’t. He re-raised me in all the stud games. He played back, he led, he didn’t lose more bets when he had trip sevens versus my higher trip sevens. It’s a good result for him and slightly better for me.”
So what’s next?
“The plan hasn’t changed,” he said.
The $100K PLO High Roller was running just a few tables down. Deeb won it last year.
“You going to defend your title?” the WSOP’s Natalie Bode asked.
“No, I’m going to the triple draw first.”
Normal service has been resumed.
